The Red Sox are ramping up their efforts to bolster their starting rotation.
A source confirms that they are expected to make an offer to Seth Lugo. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that Boston is one of at least four teams interested in the right-hander’s services. The Atlanta Braves are another.
Overall, Lugo owns a 4.01 ERA and 1.279 WHIP across 64 career starts. However, he primarily worked out of the bullpen throughout the first seven years of his Major League career, all spent with the New York Mets. Over 275 total games in blue and orange, including 38 starts and 66 games finished, he posted a 3.48 ERA, 3.63 FIP, and 1.164 WHIP. He held opposing hitters to a .236 average and .675 OPS, struck out 508 and only issued 137 walks across 494 2/3 regular-season innings.
The righty, who just turned 34, joined the San Diego Padres on a one-year deal and worked exclusively out of the rotation for the first time. Over 26 starts totaling 146 1/3 innings, he posted a 3.57 ERA, 3.83 FIP, and 1.203 WHIP. Opposing batters hit .259 with a .708 OPS against him. He’ll be looking to parlay that success into a multiyear deal.
Signing older pitchers to low-cost one- or two-year deals was Chaim Bloom’s modus operandi, and the results were mixed, to say the least. Garrett Richards struggled under MLB’s “sticky stuff” ban. Rich Hill was a solid addition in ’22, but James Paxton missed all of the first year of his two-year contract and didn’t make his ’23 debut until mid-May, fell apart in August, and didn’t pitch again after Sept. 1. Corey Kluber posted a 7.04 ERA over 15 appearances (nine starts); by late May he found himself relegated to the bullpen for the first time since his brief debut in 2011, and when he went on the injured list in late June, it turned out to be for the remainder of the year.
However, targeting Lugo doesn’t fit Bloom’s pattern by virtue of the fact that the Red Sox are making concerted efforts to reel in a much bigger fish. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is one of their “top priorities,” reports MLB Network’s Jon Morosi.